


Stacking The Deck

by screamingsongbird16



Category: Joker Game (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 14:02:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7576735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/screamingsongbird16/pseuds/screamingsongbird16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Yuuki stepped down from active duty as a spy, and started recruiting trainees for his new intelligence agency , he approached it the same way he did everything else in life.  He made sure to stack the deck.</p>
<p>AKA some of Yuuki's preseries insight on the men who'd go on to become his legacy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stacking The Deck

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tivanny](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Tivanny).



            It’s no secret in life that if you want to get ahead, you have to make your own advantages.  There are a thousand variations on this saying.  Some people bring religion into it with phrases such as, “Man proposes, God disposes.”  Or “He helps those who help themselves.”  Others keep a more agnostic approach to it, with adages like “Make your own luck.”  Or “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” 

            But however you phrase it, they’re all just pretty ways of saying do whatever you can to get ahead.  And as far as Lt. Colonel Yuuki was concerned, “whatever” included cheating.  “Stacking the deck” was his preferred colloquialism.  Others might be appalled at his interpretation of their motivational quotes, but Yuuki was a spy and a realist.  The world wasn’t fair, and those who tried to pretend it was, or even should be, only made fools of themselves. 

            So when Yuuki stepped down from active duty as a spy, and stepped up to create a new intelligence agency for his country, he approached it the same way he did everything else in life.  He set out to seize every possible advantage, to ensure that his new agency would work.  Others might have waited for whatever fell into their laps, relying only on the under the table recruitment program, which Yuuki did take a hand in putting in place.  He knew better than to assume that what he was looking for could only be found by him meticulously seeking it out.  There were likely to be a few jewels in all the junk that would enter the selection program.  But he also knew better than to simply rely on it, and hope that enough young men with potential would turn up on their own.  And so he actively sought out men who, at least after looking at them in depth, appeared to have the qualities he needed to make them into excellent spies.

            Learning their names was pointless.  Yuuki knew them, of course.  But if they even entered the selection program, he would be the only one who knew them.  They would be given a randomly assigned name and background, to be determined by which desk they chose to sit down at as he gave them their welcoming speech.  Not that the speech would be so welcoming.  Yuuki was not a welcoming person. 

            In his mind, as he sought out applicants, he assigned them their own handle IDs.  Ones that would be known only by him, but that felt more real to Yuuki than the names that had been given to them at birth.  Those names would be cast aside, if they became what he believed they could be.  The names Yuuki used for them in his mind could be reused in codes, if the need arose, and each one’s fellow spies would know who he meant without ever having to be told.  Yuuki would not be accepting any applicants who weren’t smart enough to figure that much, and much more, out on their own.

 

* * *

 

 

The Reader

 

            Unlike the military, Yuuki wasn’t looking for cookie cutter cut outs.  He made that clear at the onset.  The military was really ridiculous, brainwashing an entire generation, conditioning them to die for some imagined honor, essentially convincing them to throw their lives away.  With their ridiculously distinctive posture, and their inability not to stand at attention at any mention of the emperor, they were useless to Yuuki.  The army had essentially ruined nearly an entire generation’s worth of candidates for espionage.  Yuuki knew from the onset that he would have to recruit from colleges and universities with no military association . . . and from even below that.

            He wanted all of his trainees, at least initially, to be male, but he didn’t necessarily want them to be men.  Youth was an invaluable tool for spies who got into the game early.  A young spy could go undercover as a student, or an orphan, or a draft dodger.  Their appearances were disarming.  They could ingratiate themselves into a mark’s life early on, and never be suspected of being a spy.  They could begin building cover stories that they would use for decades to come so early on that they would skate by effortlessly through background checks.  Though there might be some moral issues that even Yuuki was not immune to, about recruiting ones so young, their uses were too varied to be ignored.  Yuuki simply appeased his conscience by choosing his underaged spies very carefully.  A nationwide search yielded only two prospective candidates.  Both of which, he knew would have to be handled with even greater care than he originally thought, but both with too much potential to pass up.

            The first he came to think of as the Reader.  He was a petit, baby faced, up and coming graduate, who could probably still pass as a middle school student if you made him up right.  At the top of his class, his teachers described him as quiet.  Yuuki however, realized at a glance that it was more that the boy was isolated.  It took almost no effort to realize why. 

            The Reader had been born in Japan, but spent most of his childhood in America.  His parents had gone to Hawaii to work in the sugar cane fields, then returned when sickness took several of the boy’s uncles, and his father inherited the family farm.  He’d never been accepted into the flock of sheep that were his classmates.  His education had left him far too altered, and with crazy notions like, “Maybe our emperor isn’t really a living god.”

            In other words, he was perfect.

            Not just in mindset and appearance, but athletics and intellect too.  He’d read every book in his school’s meagre library, all the book’s in his town’s small local library, and even the majority of the books in two other libraries, in the closest towns to have libraries on either side of his own.  His grasp of strategy was excellent.  And a single conversation with him was enough for Yuuki to tell that his opinion on espionage mirrored Yuuki’s own.  He was not at all surprised to find the boy was a fan of Sun Tzu. 

            The main thing that concerned him about the Reader was, ironically, the thing that had likely caused him to become the person he currently was.  The fact that the boy had been brought up in America.  Free education was excellent, but if he’d grown too fond of a potential enemy nation, he was as useless to Yuuki as any random soldier.  But, during the Reader’s interview, when the subject of America’s national policies were broached, the Reader had no hesitation in criticizing them.  It was plain to see that he had no more loyalty for America than he did for Japan.  His general consensus of both nations seemed to be that there were idiots in power everywhere in both countries.  And everywhere else in the world too.

            And so Yuuki’s initial impression of the Reader turned out to be true.  He was perfect spy material.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The Fighter

 

            Yuuki actually nearly passed over the one who he came to think of as the Fighter.  He was a brilliant martial artists, and hand to hand combat was important for spies, but Yuuki’s concerns were mainly about the boy’s mental condition.  He wore the signs of domestic abuse so clearly that any who cared to look could plainly see them, and he had the eyes of a boy who trusted no one.  And why should he?  Yuuki could see at a glance that there were plenty around him who knew about his suffering, and not one of them stepped in.

            Make no mistake, it was not charity that made Yuuki decide to look further into the boy.  It was the matter of the boy’s potential aptitude and how undeniably useful he would be, if his mental state proved not to be an issue.  He’d started school two years early, allegedly because his mother had died and his father had no one to watch him while he worked.  Despite being younger in age than his peers, he still received high marks in all his classes.  Not top marks, Yuuki saw, when he obtained transcripts of the boy’s grades, and his classmates’ grades.  In everything except athletics, his scores were all 90 percent exactly.  He was deliberately throwing the tests, ensuring that he did well every time, but was never the best.  Making sure he didn’t stand out.  Yuuki honestly didn’t know how the boy’s teachers had failed to catch that.  But then, failing seemed their lot in life.  He didn’t waste too much thought on them.

            When it came to athletics, Yuuki realized, he had not been allowed to hide his potential.  The Fighter’s athletics instructor was one of his father’s martial arts students.  A family friend, one could say, but no friend of the Fighter.  He accepted nothing less than perfection from the Fighter, and Yuuki even saw signs of him continuing the trend of abuse.  It made Yuuki smile bitterly to realize why.  The Fighter was leagues beyond his athletics teacher.  His talents were Olympic level.  His teacher was very, very jealous.  Had Yuuki decided to leave the Fighter to his lot in life, he may have actually taken some slight action to help the boy in some small way.  Despite Yuuki having hardened his heart years ago, he’d never been able to let it completely turn to stone.  He wasn’t without sympathy for the boy. 

            But everything he could see said that the Fighter would make a good candidate.  Youth, wits, and athleticism in spades, he had what Yuuki was looking for.  There would be time during his training to ensure that his mental condition was sound enough to undertake espionage assignments, and the signs of abuse could be conditioned out of him.  In the end, Yuuki decided to give the boy a chance.  He arranged for a fairly straightforward invitation to find its way to the Fighter.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The Ego

 

            It was to be expected that a few talented individuals would find their way to him, seeing through the veils of deception that were swathed over the general selection process.  They were treated with even more caution than his under aged selections.  Their background checks were conducted meticulously by Yuuki himself.  He would be damned before he admitted any enemy spies into his ranks, and the ones who found their way to him were the ones most likely to be moles.

            One of the five volunteers reeked of American idealism.  Another had a few unexplained blanks in his past that Yuuki could not fill.  Both of those were eliminated before they even began.  A third volunteer seemed mediocre by Yuuki’s standards, but that still put him head and shoulders above the majority of the population.  He would be given a chance.  The final two, Yuuki actually found himself pleased with.

            One was clearly a narcissist.  With his looks and intellect, it would have been hard for him not to become one.  Yuuki could tell instantly that he had always been the best looking person in every room he’d ever walked into.  As well as the smartest, at least until he was admitted into Yuuki’s temporary office.  There Yuuki and the Ego matched wits, and Yuuki could tell that this interview was being treated as a test for him as well.  The Ego would not follow anyone he didn’t think worthy.  Yuuki had the feeling the Ego had never followed anyone before.  But amidst a conversation conducted in French about Russian politics, Yuuki saw the Ego floundering.  Frustration crept across his perfectly sculpted face at the realization that he was losing an argument.  It was a distinct possibility that had never happened to him before.  The subject was changed.  Yuuki allowed it, but changed the language too, switching to German.  Here, the Ego floundered even more, at a distinct disadvantage because of the language.  Yuuki treated him to his signature spy smirk, then carefully gauged the Ego’s reaction.

            Some people did not lose well.  Especially when they were not accustomed to losing.  It would not have been outside the realm of possibility for the Ego to lose his head, start ranting, and/or storm out.  Instead he took on an expression like a child finding a new toy.  He bowed his head and conceded with grace and dignity.

            The next time Yuuki saw the Ego, the Ego greeted him in perfect German, complete with a Berlin accent.  It wasn’t long before he learned to perfectly mimic Yuuki’s spy smirk too.

 

* * *

 

 

The Player

 

            The other promising volunteer was very different from the Ego, yet Yuuki had the impression early on that they would get along well.  The Player, as the other volunteer was dubbed, gave off the impression of being the sort of man who got along with nearly everyone.  Laid back and easy going was how he came across.  His eyes gleamed with mischief, and he wore smiles easily.  He had a reputation with women, but that was not what Yuuki based his name on.

            The Player was an actual player.  An actor.  Trained from a young age.  It was sort of the family business.  But he wanted more out of life.  That much was clear.  He found all the roles stupid and fake, and preferred to lie more like a smooth talking salesman than someone playing to the back of the house. 

            His memory was second to none.  A glance at a page was enough to commit every line on it to memory.  He laughed and complied when Yuuki asked him to perform the role of Ophelia from Hamlet backwards, and in English, and did so, with accompanying reverse hand motions. 

            He was a bit unorthodox.  The military would have hated him.  But Yuuki thought that the Player might be just what his team needed.  Because, he realized somewhere along the line, that he did intend to put together a team of spies.  It was a radical concept, especially for the Japanese army.  Spies, by nature, were solitary, distrustful creatures.  But to have a group of them who could trust one another, who all knew each other by sight, opened up a world of possibilities.  Varying handlers, cross referenced spy networks, who knew what they could accomplish if he could pull this off?  And he would need people like the Player to make it work.  People who, when included in a group, could make the group work better.  Perhaps even lead it.  Only time would tell if the Player was suited for that, but Yuuki had the feeling he already had his answer.

            He told the Player that he didn’t get the role, but he did get to audition.  And then he had to ask him if he was stupid, when the Player bowed to him while wearing a suit.  At that remark, the Player grinned, and sank into a deep Shakespearean curtsey.  He then walked out of the meeting room, singing more of Ophelia’s lines about flowers, backwards. 

 

* * *

 

 

The Shrink

 

            The Shrink was not, in fact, a psychiatrist, or a doctor of any sort.  The Shrink was a bartender.  In other words, he was practically a psychiatrist, just without the medical degree.  A quiet man, who’d worked hard to put himself through a non-military college, he would have been rather nondescript if not for his height.  Or his treasure trove of secrets. 

            Yuuki had been aware of the Shrink for awhile.  He’d even made use of him, and the information that he was willing to sell.  A man who came into the spy game already knowing how to set up an information network was no small thing.  If he’d been a less moral man, he could have grown wealthy off of blackmailing the many customers who spilled their secrets to him.  Instead, he played more on the side of caution.  He clearly still considered himself to be learning the information trade.  Convincing him to receive the training that would let him up his game was not hard.  Mild mannered though he appeared, the Shrink enjoyed the power secrets gave him.

            The night he went there to recruit the Shrink, Yuuki was treated to the sight of a reunion, brought about by the Shrink’s handiwork.  Two high school sweethearts, long grown, who’d both lamented to the same bar tender about their lost first loves.  The woman, the Shrink arranged to be hired one night a week as a singer.  A voucher for two for one drinks on that same night of the week found its way into the man’s pocket.  Yuuki watched the Shrink watching the results of his work, and wondered just what he’d be capable of if set upon enemies.

 

* * *

 

 

The Variant

 

            Yuuki’s adamant stance on accepting no soldiers through his door was just another of the many, many lies he’d told in his time.  It wasn’t his fault that so many people were willing to believe everything he said, even though they knew he made his living off of lying. 

            The truth was that Yuuki would consider any useful person when it came to candidates to be trained as spies.  Even soldiers, if their minds were strong enough to resist imperial indoctrination.  Even women, if they’d managed to break free from being as useless and emotional as society currently told them to be.  If the people who were so against him setting up D-Agency in the first place believed everything he told them, so much the better.  They would never see his agents either coming or going. 

            So when he heard about a young untrainable soldier, who’d stood up to a superior officer to keep a fellow trainee from being killed during a ridiculous training exercise, Yuuki naturally felt the need to investigate.  Any soldier who went against the grain that much was worth looking into.  And the Variant, he decided upon his first meeting, had potential.  Not as much as some.  The Ego was smarter, the Fighter a better combatant, the Reader a better planner, the Shrink more composed.  But the Variant had a spark of something that was hard to define.  Yuuki gave him an invitation and a chance.  Nothing more.  He would prove on his own if he had what it took to be a spy.  With him Yuuki was only certain of one thing.  He was too good for the army.

 

* * *

 

 

The Charmer

 

            The Charmer wasn’t as good looking as the Ego.  But then, no one was.  And he didn’t need to be.  He had something else that let him ingratiate himself with not just women and men who were enamored with his looks, but also with those who didn’t have romance on the mind.  The elderly wanted him to meet their single daughters.  Children adored him.  Animals took to him so well it was almost unrealistic.  Both animals and children could be useful in espionage.  Someone who instinctively charmed both had to at least be considered for training.

            The Charmer was smart aside from that.  The top graduate in his college class, his teacher mentioned that he expressed some interest in codebreaking, but gave no opinion of the military itself.  That alone was interesting enough to merit looking into him. 

            Like the Fighter, the Charmer didn’t get a face to face interview.  Instead he received a test and an invitation in the form of a code. 

            Yuuki was pleased to see the Charmer at his opening speech the first day of training, already with a sizable group of young men who admired him around him, despite only having just met each him that day. 

 

* * *

 

 

The Dealer

 

            Honestly, by the time he found the Charmer, Yuuki thought that he had found more than enough candidates.  He wasn’t expecting all seven of the ones he’d personally scouted to make it through training.  The odds of every single one of them being able to pass every test he demanded they pass were extremely low.  He knew he’d be lucky if five men total made it through, out of both the ones he’d handpicked and the ones that other recruitment efforts brought in.  But that meant that he should always be on the lookout for more candidates to up his odds of finding ones who would actually graduate.  The army aimed to mass produce pawns.  Yuuki’s strategy was to hold as many aces as he could.

            So when he found the Dealer in a shady underground gambling den, he knew better than to pass him over too soon.  Intrigued by what sort of man had the nerves to be dealing from the bottom of the deck in a seedy joint full of experienced gamblers, Yuuki looked closer into his background.  And he liked what he saw. 

            Educated at a prestigious university in England, his mind freed from imperial propaganda, if it had ever been ensnared to begin with.  Disowned by his family for refusing to join the Japanese army upon his return.  Local opinion of him was too negative for him to find legitimate work, thanks to the stigmata of that, so he’d found other means to survive.  Means that required no small amount of wits and skill.  No one less than an expert in sleight of hand could pull off what he did.  So Yuuki was not surprised to find that the Dealer’s hobbies included magic tricks. 

            An expert at misdirection was one thing he had not yet found, but knew would be an invaluable addition to his team.  If the Dealer could make it through.  Something about him made Yuuki think he could.  He recognized a kindred spirit when he saw one.  And he even recognized a few parallels with his own past and the Dealer’s.  As well as a common philosophy for life: Always be the one holding the cards, whenever you can.  Whoever was dealing had the best chance of manipulating the cards and getting them to fall the way they wanted them to. 

            Some might call it cheating, but only fools thought everything in life should be fair.  Yuuki and the Dealer both knew that if you wanted to win, it sure as hell helped to stack the deck.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

            Notes: This fic was written as a thank you for Tivanny who drew me this piece of fanart for my other fic, The Voyage Home:  <http://tivanny2292.tumblr.com/image/147437740031>.  Tivanny asked for something about Yuuki when he was still in the process of recruiting people for D-Agency because she wanted some more perspective on his children.  So here we have Yuuki wandering around, filling up his training program with useful people, not realizing that these are the men who are going to become like sons to him, even though he’s already seeing quite a bit of himself in them, lol.  I hope you like it Tivanny!  I saved your best guy for last. :)

 

 

            And though I have faith that everyone in this fandom can tell which of our boys is which, here’s an answer sheet for you, so you can see that you were right:

 

The Reader – Jitsui

The Fighter – Hatano

The Ego – Miyoshi

The Player – Kaminaga

The Shrink – Fukumoto

The Variant – Odagiri

The Charmer – Amari

The Dealer - Tazaki

 

 

            And just for fun, here’s a grading scale!

 

8/8 – Yuuki’s right hand

7/8 – D-Agency graduate

6/8 – D-Agency trainee

5/8 – French Resistance

4/8 – And who might you be sending secret telegrams to in the middle of the night?

3/8 – I found this coin in my pocket . . .

2/8 – Wind Agency graduate

1/8 – Mutou

 

 

So?  How’d you do? :P


End file.
